Acid-Suppressing Meds Have Risks

Proton pump inhibitors, which suppress acid in the stomach and are often prescribed for reflux and ulcers, are the third highest selling drugs in the United Statesmore than 113 million prescriptions are filled each year. Now comes word, though, that those drugs may carry more risks than previously thought.

A series of reports in the Archives of Internal Medicine note that proton pump inhibitors are associated with fractures in postmenopausal women as well as bacterial infections in many hospital patients. Researchers have also found that higher amounts of the drugs dont seem to be any more beneficial for treating ulcers than regular doses.

The study looking at the link between proton pump inhibitors and fractures, and conducted at the University of Washington, Seattle, involved over 160, 000 women between the ages of 50 and 79 (it was part of the Womens Health Initiative Study). The researchers followed the women for eight years and found that they had an increased risk of spine and forearm or wrist fractures, and simply more fractures overall.

Two studies looked at the association with bacterial infection, one at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and one at Boston Medical Center. The former found a 74 increase in infection; the other a 42 percent increase. The researchers who investigated proton pump inhibitors and ulcers were based in Taiwan. They found that people who received high doses of the drug did not fare better than people who had regular proton pump inhibitor therapy.

Writing in an editorial that accompanied the journal reports, Mitchell H. Katz, M.D., of the San Francisco Department of Public Health, noted that between 53 and 69 percent of proton pump inhibitor prescriptions are prescribed inappropriately. That proton pump inhibitors relieve dyspepsia is without question, but at what cost (and I do not mean financial)?"